- Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
- I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
- Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
- We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
- For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
- That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
- That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
- And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
- The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
- They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
- And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
- Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
- He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
- In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
- He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
- He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
- And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.
- And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
- Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
- Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?
- Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;
- Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:
- Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
- And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
- Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.
- He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.
- He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:
- And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
- So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;
- They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
- The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
- For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.
- Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
- When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.
- And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.
- Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
- For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
- But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
- For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
- How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
- Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
- They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
- How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.
- And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
- He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
- He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
- He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.
- He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
- He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
- He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
- And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
- But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
- And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
- And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
- He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
- Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:
- But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
- For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
- When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
- So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;
- And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.
- He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.
- The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.
- Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
- Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
- And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.
- Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
- But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
- And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.
- He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
- From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
- So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.